Participants:
Amare H/Selassie Birhanu Zemedam Bharat Sharma Charlotte Macalister Francis Oloo
Kinde Getnet Lisa Rebello
Mathew McCartney Teklu Erkossa Tilahun Amede Tseday Ayalew
Venue: IWMI Meeting Room 1. Updates on Individual Projects N2: Bharat · Bharat will be chairing a special session on ICID Congress on Water Productivity under Stressed Environment to be held in October 2011 in Tehran, Iran. He invited if anyone would be interested to forward paper for presentation · Birhanu, Bharat and Katherine plus other members of the other Nile projects made a field trip to the three sites. · Observation:
In many areas there is a depressing, empty look of the land and degraded agriculture
Agriculture is usually carried only 4-5 months while people remain idle and with food shortage for the rest of 7-8 months of the year except slight activity on livestock
Very small proportion of lively land through stream water and irrigation but inefficient water usage with much loss
Better mechanism is observed in Bahir Dar where farmers use pumps but are used to cultivate Chat as it will enable them cover the diesel cost
In Nekemt, a well appreciated cultivation is seen where around 400 families are settling with around 250m2 of land per family. It is a community that uses contour farming very well, has maize and other crop farming, innovative way of water transportation and irrigation is practiced and is also a place where the group saw a well dug for water sourcing just by an individual. Yet the fruits of the hardwork will sustain people only for 6-7 months the rest of the year is difficult to sustain that the community may migrate.
Note was made here that the amount of land given to a household for irrigation depends on Government rules of the area and also amount of available water.
While most of the areas use surface water the use of ground water is observed to be only 3-4%, usually found at the valley bottom.
Water storage was also another difficulty identified. Except one Government constructed storage in Bahir Dar, most of the areas use only small streams to store water for their cattle and drinking purpose as well. The labor it consumes to carry the water, its quality etc is describes as sympathetic situation. A different perspective is seen with people in Hararghe that have a notion that the drinking water must come from a separate stream for the sake of its cleanness.
· Recommendation:
The project must think of a strategic intervention on critical components by which it may bring change for the larger community.
Strategic Interventions could be on the areas of
a. Storage b. Efficient use of water (minimize water loss during on the way from the stream to the farm)
Irrigating rain water must be included in the concern though irrigation is a system by itself.
Two potential niches are said to be
a. Supporting home/kitchen garden by working on water capturing and storing mechanisms so that farmers could earn more cash b. Support field scale irrigation
Note was made that N2 shall include home gardening in its lowland irrigated area perspective
· Conclusion
Bharat will produce a summary of recommended RMs interventions for up, middle and low land zones the soonest possible so that other members working on related issues like economic perspective, modeling can use the specific set of RMS selected.
The detailed version will be presented on the May workshop.
By May the group shall reach on a clear understanding on how to coordinate issues on RMS, who has done what, who will do what, discuss and learn the process, bring options and let farmers’ choose which ones to try. Also assess areas like what interventions are available, and why they aren’t adopted properly etc.
A report will be produced for each site and a generic one as well.
N4: Charlotte · Will work on SWAT modeling with N2 · Will organize a specific session on modeling in May N5: Tilahun · Is trying to solicit fund from UNEP for a project on Blue Nile Basin at a landscape level but focusing on the dry land. PLE leads the work. The project is going to be featured with upstream-downstream relationship similar to the work of N2. · Tilahun is invited to present a paper at Kenyatta University · Ethiopian Soil Science Society will organize a National workshop on Climate Change issues. Telku is a President of the Society and Tilahun serves in the Editorial. So far about 60-70 papers are already received. Opening is expected to be by Prof. Tekalign Mamo while there would be invited key speakers. About 250 participants are expected to take part. Papers shall be presented from IWMI (on water), ICARDA (on crop), and ILRI (on livestock). Though it couldn’t happen this year, for next year the association will try to bring in the East African Society making it more of a regional forum. IWMI is hoped to use this opportunity to create a showcase of its work and strong presence. The Society has its own journal; the Ethiopian Journal of Natural Resources that is planning to publish a special issue in the upcoming 4-5 month on natural resource. The journal can be found on many websites and discusses about all natural resource types including water and even technological innovations as well.
Productivity and Sedimentation
· Teklu is dealing with this section at the moment. The Aqua-Crop modeling is being considered for the work. Note was made that it is important to identify the type of crop growing in the area upon which measurements will be applied to be modeled. Focus will be on major crops dominating the economy. The soil conservation and land management factors are to be reflected on productivity through sediment. · Attempt will be made to include non-crop feed sources by closely working with Amare which will bring livestock-crop productivity. That encompasses residue and grass, bush etc. · Suggestion is given to add Eucalyptus as it is a major coverage. ICRAF is asked for the data also on water productivity and RMS. · Non-cultivated land or common land is also recommended to be included in the focus. · Francis briefed participants that ICRAF is working on land use mapping and tree cover map. He will discuss and sort a few more things upon his return to office. · N2 can provide the general map of division of the land; crop area, forest area etc but not specific crop type or parcel map. · The productivity data plus the data that students are going to collect on household basis including factors like soil management would be used for the Economic work. · Two students would be needed to work on crop productivity and sediment including quantification respectively. There will be much added cost to complete the work in the ideal manner practicing lab tests and covering wide samples. · The issue of productivity and sedimentation was discussed for long. All individual projects believed in its importance. However the practicality seemed to be a bit complicated that Bharat and Charlotte has agreed to discuss it further on Monday the 14th of March to clear budgeting, logistics and additional staff time for Teklu and Amare. 3. Clarification of scales of RMS impact assessment including economic/LLH data Kindie briefed the group on progress made in terms of the economic work · The type of data planned to be used is secondary data · The data awaited from IFPRI has come to a status of unavailability though not stated clearly. It was noted that separate efforts from IWMI side are being made to get data from IFPRI which might have crowded the communication. Therefore it is decided for Katherine to be in charge of the whole idea and pursue as long as she can. The rest of the group shall wait and see the outcome. · The 2005 IFPRI data does not turn useful. · Last resort will be to send students out to the field to collect data. However comment was made that there could possibly be too many students on the same sites that might overwhelm the community with queries. Suggestions were made to opt for taking students that are contracted for other jobs, once they are finished with it. On the other hand the issue of capacity building and the idea of providing different students with the opportunity was noted not to be forgotten. 4. Landcover-Landuse mapping and cropping systems Brief discussion was made on the request for data sent to Fergus of ICRAF. There is a concern that his team might have already been over delivering while some of the data sent is said to be condensed interms of its coverage. Decision is made to wait for his response to know final status. 5. The status of water gauging structures installation and data collection – linkage with sediment quality assessment Birahnu updated the group on the status of the instruments
Permission is almost secured from Metrological Agency after going through a series of discussions and briefing about the project which was initially misunderstood. Same is discussed with MoWE and partner universities (Bahir Dar, Wollega and Ambo Universities)
Installation is expected to start in June and it is hoped that it will be possible to catch with the rainy season
Call for request and support was made on selection of location for the installation of the instruments. The idea of working together on the selection is said to be good as the result is to be used by all individual projects. Suggestion is made to set up a meeting to discuss the idea and visit to the sites may also be needed.
In addition it was noted to bring the person to work on sedimentation to join the group selecting the locations.
Final update was made by Tilahun that the pending research agreement with Holeta Agriculture Center for a baseline survey to be conducted by N2 is soon to be concluded. The meeting adjourned at 11:50am.
Date: March 11, 2011
Participants:
Amare H/Selassie
Birhanu Zemedam
Bharat Sharma
Charlotte Macalister
Francis Oloo
Kinde Getnet
Lisa Rebello
Mathew McCartney
Teklu Erkossa
Tilahun Amede
Tseday Ayalew
Venue: IWMI Meeting Room
1. Updates on Individual Projects
N2: Bharat
· Bharat will be chairing a special session on ICID Congress on Water Productivity under Stressed Environment to be held in October 2011 in Tehran, Iran. He invited if anyone would be interested to forward paper for presentation
· Birhanu, Bharat and Katherine plus other members of the other Nile projects made a field trip to the three sites.
· Observation:
- In many areas there is a depressing, empty look of the land and degraded agriculture
- Agriculture is usually carried only 4-5 months while people remain idle and with food shortage for the rest of 7-8 months of the year except slight activity on livestock
- Very small proportion of lively land through stream water and irrigation but inefficient water usage with much loss
- Better mechanism is observed in Bahir Dar where farmers use pumps but are used to cultivate Chat as it will enable them cover the diesel cost
- In Nekemt, a well appreciated cultivation is seen where around 400 families are settling with around 250m2 of land per family. It is a community that uses contour farming very well, has maize and other crop farming, innovative way of water transportation and irrigation is practiced and is also a place where the group saw a well dug for water sourcing just by an individual. Yet the fruits of the hardwork will sustain people only for 6-7 months the rest of the year is difficult to sustain that the community may migrate.
- Note was made here that the amount of land given to a household for irrigation depends on Government rules of the area and also amount of available water.
- While most of the areas use surface water the use of ground water is observed to be only 3-4%, usually found at the valley bottom.
- Water storage was also another difficulty identified. Except one Government constructed storage in Bahir Dar, most of the areas use only small streams to store water for their cattle and drinking purpose as well. The labor it consumes to carry the water, its quality etc is describes as sympathetic situation. A different perspective is seen with people in Hararghe that have a notion that the drinking water must come from a separate stream for the sake of its cleanness.
· Recommendation:- The project must think of a strategic intervention on critical components by which it may bring change for the larger community.
- Strategic Interventions could be on the areas of
a. Storageb. Efficient use of water (minimize water loss during on the way from the stream to the farm)
- Irrigating rain water must be included in the concern though irrigation is a system by itself.
- Two potential niches are said to be
a. Supporting home/kitchen garden by working on water capturing and storing mechanisms so that farmers could earn more cashb. Support field scale irrigation
- Note was made that N2 shall include home gardening in its lowland irrigated area perspective
· ConclusionN4: Charlotte
· Will work on SWAT modeling with N2
· Will organize a specific session on modeling in May
N5: Tilahun
· Is trying to solicit fund from UNEP for a project on Blue Nile Basin at a landscape level but focusing on the dry land. PLE leads the work. The project is going to be featured with upstream-downstream relationship similar to the work of N2.
· Tilahun is invited to present a paper at Kenyatta University
· Ethiopian Soil Science Society will organize a National workshop on Climate Change issues. Telku is a President of the Society and Tilahun serves in the Editorial. So far about 60-70 papers are already received. Opening is expected to be by Prof. Tekalign Mamo while there would be invited key speakers. About 250 participants are expected to take part. Papers shall be presented from IWMI (on water), ICARDA (on crop), and ILRI (on livestock). Though it couldn’t happen this year, for next year the association will try to bring in the East African Society making it more of a regional forum. IWMI is hoped to use this opportunity to create a showcase of its work and strong presence. The Society has its own journal; the Ethiopian Journal of Natural Resources that is planning to publish a special issue in the upcoming 4-5 month on natural resource. The journal can be found on many websites and discusses about all natural resource types including water and even technological innovations as well.
- Productivity and Sedimentation
· Teklu is dealing with this section at the moment. The Aqua-Crop modeling is being considered for the work. Note was made that it is important to identify the type of crop growing in the area upon which measurements will be applied to be modeled. Focus will be on major crops dominating the economy. The soil conservation and land management factors are to be reflected on productivity through sediment.· Attempt will be made to include non-crop feed sources by closely working with Amare which will bring livestock-crop productivity. That encompasses residue and grass, bush etc.
· Suggestion is given to add Eucalyptus as it is a major coverage. ICRAF is asked for the data also on water productivity and RMS.
· Non-cultivated land or common land is also recommended to be included in the focus.
· Francis briefed participants that ICRAF is working on land use mapping and tree cover map. He will discuss and sort a few more things upon his return to office.
· N2 can provide the general map of division of the land; crop area, forest area etc but not specific crop type or parcel map.
· The productivity data plus the data that students are going to collect on household basis including factors like soil management would be used for the Economic work.
· Two students would be needed to work on crop productivity and sediment including quantification respectively. There will be much added cost to complete the work in the ideal manner practicing lab tests and covering wide samples.
· The issue of productivity and sedimentation was discussed for long. All individual projects believed in its importance. However the practicality seemed to be a bit complicated that Bharat and Charlotte has agreed to discuss it further on Monday the 14th of March to clear budgeting, logistics and additional staff time for Teklu and Amare.
3. Clarification of scales of RMS impact assessment including economic/LLH data
Kindie briefed the group on progress made in terms of the economic work
· The type of data planned to be used is secondary data
· The data awaited from IFPRI has come to a status of unavailability though not stated clearly. It was noted that separate efforts from IWMI side are being made to get data from IFPRI which might have crowded the communication. Therefore it is decided for Katherine to be in charge of the whole idea and pursue as long as she can. The rest of the group shall wait and see the outcome.
· The 2005 IFPRI data does not turn useful.
· Last resort will be to send students out to the field to collect data. However comment was made that there could possibly be too many students on the same sites that might overwhelm the community with queries. Suggestions were made to opt for taking students that are contracted for other jobs, once they are finished with it. On the other hand the issue of capacity building and the idea of providing different students with the opportunity was noted not to be forgotten.
4. Landcover-Landuse mapping and cropping systems
Brief discussion was made on the request for data sent to Fergus of ICRAF. There is a concern that his team might have already been over delivering while some of the data sent is said to be condensed interms of its coverage. Decision is made to wait for his response to know final status.
5. The status of water gauging structures installation and data collection – linkage with sediment quality assessment
Birahnu updated the group on the status of the instruments
- Permission is almost secured from Metrological Agency after going through a series of discussions and briefing about the project which was initially misunderstood. Same is discussed with MoWE and partner universities (Bahir Dar, Wollega and Ambo Universities)
- Installation is expected to start in June and it is hoped that it will be possible to catch with the rainy season
- Call for request and support was made on selection of location for the installation of the instruments. The idea of working together on the selection is said to be good as the result is to be used by all individual projects. Suggestion is made to set up a meeting to discuss the idea and visit to the sites may also be needed.
- In addition it was noted to bring the person to work on sedimentation to join the group selecting the locations.
Final update was made by Tilahun that the pending research agreement with Holeta Agriculture Center for a baseline survey to be conducted by N2 is soon to be concluded.The meeting adjourned at 11:50am.